Check this out...

They are having a give-away over at Abbey Lane Quilts but more importantly they have a fantastically inspiring blog. Just this one post alone makes me want to run to the sewing room and get to work.

I can just see their funky flowers on some of my bags not to mention the wall art.  You really need to get on over there and check it out!

A few visitors

We have had a family of armadillos in our neighborhood. They are really cute ~ but driving poor Sadie crazy. Here are three of them ~ although Nate says the other day he saw four together. They are pretty much blind so you can almost walk right up to them. These guys are all juveniles who have made our area home.

Richard also spotted this beautiful bird on top of one of the trees outside. Sorry about the quality of the pic but I didn't want to go outside the screen and have him fly off (which happened about 2 minutes after I took this). It was a particularly large egret. It's amazing to watch them fly.

It's one of the things I love most about our neighborhood is getting to see all these wonderful creatures.

This last creature was NOT in our yard, thank goodness.  This spider was HUGE!  Like the size of Richard's hand huge.  We've had these spiders in our yard but thankfully much smaller.  While I'm not a fan of spiders, it was really cool looking.

Egads ~ The Boy is a Teenager!

So last month my little man turned into a teenager. How in the world did that happen. Seems just yesterday he was just a little guy. And now he's so grown up!

He had two parties this year. The first was a pool party with his friends on Saturday. These are the neighborhood kids. The party was from noon till 4:00 but they all ended up staying until closer to 6:00. They did get out of the pool twice. Once for pizza and once for cake I had the shaved ice machine set up and they all really loved that. We have about a dozen flavors of syrups and I think they tried every combination imaginable. Look how handsome that boy is...
Jen & Jeremy were with us for the weekend as well and Charlie took her first dip in the pool But mostly she floated with mommy

The next day was more of a "family" birthday party. Nani (Patty) came up along with Uncle Matt & Karina Jen, Jeremy & Charlie were still with us too. Rich grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. It was a lot of fun ~ but an exhausting weekend.
It was great to see all the kids in the pool ~ all getting along and having fun and the next day, being surrounded by my family. I am truly blessed.

Our attempt at Zentangles

So, I've been wanting to try Zentangles for a while now and Jill from Life with Nature Girl, was good enough to give us a bit of a guide ~ two pages of squares filled in with different shapes to fill in spaces on zentangles (which I highly recommend) I no longer had an excuse to put them off.

The kids and I sat down at the dining room table one afternoon. I showed them one of the Zentangle videos along with "The Quilt Rat's" gallery of artwork and we got to work on our own.

Nate was the first to finish his. He saw something in The Quilt Rat gallery and decided to do his own version.  He is a bit of a minimalist, as in ~ he'll do the absolute least he can get away with.  It doesn't work well in school but I think in this case, less was definitely more.  He shows great potential.  Now if I could only get him away from video games (I'm working on it, trust me).    Most zentangles I've seen were done with black ink but we were lacking in thick and thin black sharpee's so he opted for blue.  My favorite thing about his is the word "ocean" in the fish.  I just wish he had added more to the picture.  I think we'll work on doing this again soon.

Julianne was the next one finished.  She also decided to do a fish although she put lots of work into hers and really took the time to fill it all in.  She added waves on top along with a fish hook and coral on the bottom of the ocean.  Notice the word fish inside her fish.  One of my favorite things about her work is the sand dollars she added and the other thing I really like is the angle of her fish.  She really enjoyed doing this and is looking forward to doing more.  She is like a sponge when it comes to trying new things plus she really like doing stuff with me (which I really appreciate).  She opted for purple ink which also turned out very cool.   My only criticism for her was to make more light and more dark spots so there are very defined areas.

Last but not least is mine.  Please don't look too closely.   I've never considered myself an artist although this really was a lot of fun to do.   I worked with brown ink which gave it a bit of a retro look.  I had no plan in mind  but once I drew the heart (and the subsequent two hearts underneath a plan started to form.  It turned out to be a tribute of sorts to the summer of 69.  It started off with the word love and peace signs up one side of the heart and went from there.  I took about 2 days to do this.  I went back over some areas and filled in where there was a bit too much light.  Looking at it now, it could probably use some more dark areas.   Here's a close up of the one area that I pretty much filled in with words.  It's got everything from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.  I would definitely do this again and it has so many possibilities like the acrylic clipboard Jill T. did for me or the fabric postcards that Jill B does.  How about a white coffee mug or a decorative glass plate.
It's a project that is fun for kids of all ages and grown up's too!
Give it a try ~ I'd love to see what you come up with.

When Bloggers Meet

So earlier this week I was reading the blog "Life with Nature Girl."  She was getting ready to go on a Disney cruise out of Port Canaveral.  Jill is one of those bloggers I consider a friend so when I realized she was going to be less than an hour from me with some time to spare, I jumped at the chance to meet her AND Nature Girl.
Their cruise got in on Tuesday and they had about 6 hours to kill at the airport.  Jill called me when they got on the bus to take them to the airport and Julianne and I drove to Orlando to meet them there.
 
She is even nicer in person if that's even possible. The adorable Nature Girl is just that ~ adorable and very well behaved.  I even met Jill's husband who really does exist!
I honestly don't remember who found who's blog first or how, but we've been reading and commenting on each others blogs for years now.   It is an easy friendship and we had no loss of things to talk about because we already knew each other so well.
Julz and I hung out at the airport for about 4 hours.  Orlando airport is a great airport with lots to do.  We wandered the airport.  I showed them the sleeping man in the glass box (freaky), we rode up the 3 story escalator(scary), we shopped at the Disney shop and the Sea World shop(fun).  We rode up the glass elevator and looked down at the fountain. 

 We had lunch and just talked and talked.  I probably could have stayed for much longer but we had to get back home.

I had a few days notice that I was going to meet them so I hit the sewing room and made a travel pillow case for Nature Girl, a tea wallet (with a mug) for Jill, and even a wallet for Jill's husband so he wouldn't feel left out.

I honestly didn't expect anything from Jill ~ after all she had about an hour's notice we would meet before leaving for her cruise.  That didn't stop her though.  Jill made me this amazing Zentangle clip board.  I turned her on to zentangles a while back with this post and she's been hooked ever since.  Notice she put in a flamingo and palm tree for me.  Does she know me or what?  Even Nature Girl had her hand in this design.
Thank you guys so very much.  I feel so honored and I'm so glad I got to meet a fellow blogger and friend.

Not necessarily better but definitely hotter in the Bahamas

Richard, the kids and I took a cruise to the Bahamas a couple of weeks ago. We don't normally go in the summer but we just couldn't wait. I have a friend (Hi Becki) that books cruises and she got us a great price. We couldn't pass it up.

We actually sailed out of Miami which was interesting. I haven't been in Miami in forever. We got some great pictures of downtown while we waited for the ship to depart.
This is the very south tip of Miami Beach looking north as we leave.

I planned on drinking a lot ~ after all ~ no where to drive afterwards. Friday was Rum, Saturday was Tequila and Sunday was Vodka! And while I did have 3 rum drinks throughout the day on Friday, I actually only had one drink on Saturday and one on Sunday. Disappointing, I know.

The ship was a lot more crowded than I remember and really really steaming. Especially during the muster drill before sailing. They had us all out on the deck, touching shoulders and no breeze whatsoever. I have to say that was the most uncomfortable part. The four of us in a room was a bit cramped as well but other than sleeping we really didn't spend much time there. We did enjoy our towel critters every evening though.

The first day was Coco Cay ~ Royal Caribbean's private island. The last time we took a cruise, the seas were too rough to shuttle the passengers. This time we got to take the kids snorkeling. The sun was hot (Richard has the sunburn to prove it) but the water was perfect. The further out you got, the colder the water got. It places it was almost like ice water. We got to see some really pretty fish swimming around us and the kids ~ especially Nate couldn't get enough of it.

They serve a great buffet out on the beach ~ burgers, hot dogs, ribs ~ lots of salads and fresh fruit. It was great. You have to be careful though. The birds have their routine down and if you move away from your plate even for a moment they swoop down and it's all theirs.

Back on the boat we watched a good show or two, enjoyed cheering on the people brave enough to participate in Karaoke, and relax in the piano bar. While Julianne hung with us most of the time, Nate chose to spend his evening time in the teen room.

On Sunday we walked around Nassau and visited the places Richard used to live as well as the school he went to. We were so soaked from sweat ~ I don't recommend walking a couple of miles (some uphill) in that kind of heat. Boy were we glad to be back on the air conditioned ship.

We thought this was kinda funny It's on the side of some type of health/medical bldg.

Monday brought us back into Miami and we took a detour to my past. This is the house I lived in for almost 13 yrs as a kid. It was on NW 10th avenue and 140th street. It was pink at the time and didn't have a fence. It was bordered by chinese cherry bushes. There are still a few there but the coconut palms (we had three) were all gone. The mango trees still survived which was cool.

The second house we drove by was where I lived from 8th to 11th grade. It is on NW 17th Ave and 132nd street. I got my first kiss on that front porch. It's a shame to see how everything has gone downhill. This house used to be beautiful. It didn't have a fence either and all the trees where kept trimmed into these cool shapes. I really loved this house.

We drove past my elementary school as well ~ I didn't get pictures but it's pretty run down now as well. I have so many great memories from Ben Franklin Elementary and "the field" which was the big hang out well into middle school.  We drove around quite a few of my old haunts but everything has changed so much.  Guess you really can't go home again!

Anyway... a good trip but glad to be back.  Hope you get to do something fun this summer too and I'd love to hear all about it!

So let's see if I can do this...

So, every time I accidentally take a break from writing it seems to get harder to start again. I wonder why that is. I really enjoy writing. I have enough to write about.

I've made some fabulous friends through this blog.I had a great chat with my friend Jonathan from "I Laugh, Therefore, I AM," last night. He's a great guy. Smart, funny, a talented photographer and a great cook. Someday when the family & I get back up to Chicago (where Julz was born) I will finally get to meet him and the equally wonderful "Miss Healthypants," who I now also consider a friend.

Then there is Jill from "Life with Nature Girl." I'm actually going to get to meet her next week ~ I'm so excited.

There are also those I haven't met or talked to yet but still consider very good friends. There's my friend Sandra from "Sandra Sews:)" She sent me this as a bon voyage gift for my cruise. It's a zipped bag. Isn't that the cutest thing ever. We both share a love of Flamingo's and have had so many great email conversations. I do hope we'll get to meet someday.

Anyway, the point I'm making is... Blogging has been a real blessing in my life and I really don't understand why I have such a hard time keeping it up.

Do any of you other bloggers out there experience this?  I'd love to hear from you and see how you deal with this.

I think sometimes it can be attributed to a lack of comments (can you say insecure?) but then there are days when I get plenty of great feedback.  I guess it's like anything else out there...you just keep plugging away and value the benefits and forget the rest...

Anyway... this is me, back again..... lots to write and show.... see you soon.